Elizabethtown College recently had the pleasure of hosting Daniella Gibbs Léger, the executive vice president for communications and strategy at American Progress. Léger was on campus as the Woodrow Wilson visiting fellow, and on Thursday, Feb. 28 she was interviewed in Gibble Auditorium by Etown junior Pleasant Sprinkle-Williams.
In discussing how she got involved with this interview, Sprinkle-Williams expressed that the process was rather fluid. “My professor, [professor of communications]Dr. Johnson, actually found out about the event and then suggested me to [Director of the Bowers Writers House] Jesse Waters. Next thing you know, I am on stage with Léger,” she said.
“Seeing an empowering and successful woman of color coming onto campus, visiting classes, and then answering students questions about life… Nothing can truly beat that experience,” Sprinkle-Williams emphasized.
It is this understanding of Léger’s impact that helped Sprinkle-Williams conduct an impactful, engaging interview with the visiting fellow. Leger has maintained a concentration on women’s and African American affairs, especially during the time in which she worked as the Democratic National Convention (DNC) Deputy of Communications.
Prior to the interview, Léger introduced herself. She expressed how she had been politically conscious from a young age, being able to articulately critique former president Ronald Reagan’s administration at the age of five.
At the University of Virginia, she majored in government (comparable to Etown’s political science major) and minored in sociology. However, despite having strong political skills, she did not immediately find a career right after graduating.
She initially lived with her parents and worked at Macy’s after graduation before getting a job working with the press on a mayoral campaign in New York City. She would then move to Washington, D.C., working with the Newspaper Publisher Association. She worked as a political liaison, making early connections with members of the DNC that would be significant to her down the line.
One thing that was crucial to Léger was that college students do not feel burnt out by the prospect of engaging with the complexities of the working world.
“Don’t believe it when they say that young people don’t care about anything. I know it’s not true… the passion that you have is going to move you forward,” she said.
After this introduction, the interview process began. Sprinkle-Williams’s first question for Léger was about imposter syndrome, the feeling of ostracization and inadequacy often felt in career and academic spaces (and felt disproportionately by women of color).
When confronting this feeling, Léger gave the advice to “believe in what you are doing” and to “seek out mentors that can remind you that you’re a badass and deserve to be where you are.”
In a similar vein, Sprinkle-Williams then asked about what advice Leger had about striking a balance between “individual identity” and “a busy career.”
Léger stressed that for her it was very important that “when I was home I focused on being home” and mentioned the cliché of the “White House widow,” which occurs when spouses of politicians working in the White House tend to see their partners much less frequently due to the demanding work. Léger described her own time working in the White House as “non-stop” and further specified that she “always [felt] the pressure to do [her] best.”
Léger was critical of the current administration, expressing that its current attitude towards the media is “not good for democracy, for transparency, for populous having access to the presidency.”
Léger also did communications work in the Obama administration, and advised that the individual currently holding the position she had “really think to themselves: Is this what I want?” Given the current scandals of the Trump administration, Léger cautioned politicians involved to consider how involvement with the administration could potentially hurt their credibility going forward.
Léger additionally had advice for students hoping to get involved on campus. “Find what you are most interested in and pursue it.” she said. She also emphasized the significance of making connections, both to reach out for opportunities but also to use whatever positions you currently hold as a way to assist someone else.
Léger quoted a former DNC chairperson who stated that “when you have a seat at the table, make room for somebody else.”
Sprinkle-Williams also asked Léger about how college students can “manage self care and career productivity,” to which Léger responded that it is important to know “when you need to step back” and emphasized that it was especially important to “start practicing now,” adding that this was true “especially for you you folk who think you can do anything — which you can — but still take time to yourself.”
“I look at all the people who burn out or get cynical, and I think it’s because their heart wasn’t ever in it all the way,” Léger said.
She likewise stated: “The only way to change the system is to get in the system and change it by force,” elaborating: “I love that [younger politicians such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] are pushing the boundaries.”
Ultimately, Léger concluded that what she hopes what “people take away from 2018 is that it is easy to be disillusioned, but it is more effective to shake up the system.”
